Brussels, 30/08/2007 (Agence Europe) - The increasingly frequent and serious drought and water scarcity in Europe are a major concern and a top priority for the Portuguese EU Presidency in the environment field (EUROPE 9471). It is therefore not surprising that they should be the focus of the informal meeting of EU environment ministers, summoned to Lisbon on 31 August and 1 September by Francisco Nunes Correia, Minister for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Regional Development in Portugal. Aware that these serious matters no longer only affect the southern countries but also a large number of other Union countries, the EU considers the time has come to seek to promote a European approach to the management of water resources, that are becoming rarer under the effect of climate change.
Since June 2006, the date of the first exploratory debate on this subject at the Environment Council, southern European countries have been calling for a Community strategy to combat drought and desertification as a complement to the European directive on the integrated management and prevention of flooding within the EU (EUROPE 9221). The Commission's communication on how to tackle water scarcity and drought (WS&D), presented on 18 July, allows the EU to trigger a debate on the most effective ways to raise this challenge in Europe (EUROPE 9471). It will serve as a backdrop for the informal exchange of views chaired by Mr Nunes Correia to broaden the avenues for reflection. Stavros Dimas, Environment Commissioner, will represent the Commission.
With this initiative, the Portuguese EU Presidency hopes to increase European awareness that it is extremely important to tackle the questions of drought and water scarcity, and to look at the consequences that individual member states struggle to solve effectively on their own. It also aims to: - discuss the strategic solutions set out by the Commission; - analyse the current situation that is growing worse under the effect of climate change; - envisage the creation at EU level of drought and water shortage indicators; - envisage a European strategy and institutional, technical and financial instruments to tackle drought and water scarcity; - and analyse needs with a view to future legislative action for combating drought.
The Presidency takes the view that drought (a temporary fall in water availability, considered a natural disaster) and water scarcity (demand that exceeds resources in lasting conditions) are problems that are related but different, and as such deserve to be covered by slightly different strategies. Guided by a Presidency document, the ministers will be invited to answer the following questions:
The EU Communication presents a fundamental and well-developed first set of policy options to deal with WS&D issues at European level but does it address all WS&D concerns? The Water Framework Directive is the flagship directive on water policy establishing the tools fro achieving the good status of all European waters and its full implementation is a priority in order to address mismanagement of water resources - but does it provide a solution to all water-related issues, in particular those of a quantitative nature? And do WS&D create distortions when implementing the above directive, influencing the achievement of the environmental objectives? Should a specific European Policy on Droughts be developed? By what legal instruments? Are the available European financial tools adequate to deal with WS&D events? Should the Commission present a follow-up programme in the near future to implement the measures defined in the Communication, including legislative action if need be, bearing in mind that work and research on WS&D are still progressing?
The guidelines that will come out of this informal ministerial debate will allow the Presidency to draw its own conclusions before the Environment Council on 30 October adopts formal conclusions to guide the work of the European Commission. (an)